The invention is based on a priority application EP03293355.8 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly without limitation, to the transmission of a data stream to a mobile terminal.
Cellular voice and data networks facilitate ‘anytime, anywhere’ connectivity but they are expensive and offer low bandwidth. Infostation networks have been suggested as a viable alternative to meet the needs of mobile applications (Frenkiel, B. R. Badrinath, J. Borras, and R. Yates. The infostations challenge: Balancing cost and ubiquity in delivering wireless data. IEEE Person. Commun., 7(2):66-71, 2000; Exploiting Data Diversity And Multiuser Diversity In Noncooperative Mobile Infostation Networks (2003) Wing Ho Yuen, Roy D. Yates, Siun-Chuon Mau; Combining Infrastructure and Ad hoc Collaboration for Data Management in Mobile Wireless Networks (2002) Olga Ratsimor, Sethuram Balaji Kodeswaran, Anupam Joshi, Timothy Finin, Yelena Yesha ).
An infostation network consists of a set of towers offering short-range high bandwidth radio coverage. They offer high-speed discontinuous coverage, which is inherently low cost. Network access is available to users that are passing in close proximity. In this sense the infostation is similar to a base station coupled with an information server such that the base station provides the network connectivity while the information server handles the data requests. A mobile terminal thus experiences areas of connectivity (when close to an infostation) and areas of disconnection (when there is no infostation nearby).